Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Kentucky has been awarded a federal Homeland Security grant aimed at keeping terrorists from using charitable gaming to raise money.

The state Office of Charitable Gaming won the $36,300 grant and will use it to provide five investigators with laptop computers and access to a commercially operated law-enforcement data base, said John Holiday, enforcement director at the Office of Charitable Gaming.

The idea is to keep terrorists from playing bingo or running a charitable game to raise large amounts of cash, Holiday said.wkyt

Anyone who has worked at bingo knows that far more money is spent on multiple cards, and traipsing to each hall night after night, then what is won. Three hundred dollars here, one hundred dollars there after several weeks of buying several cards, sitting for hours in smoky rooms, is the purview of little old ladies and aged veterans. Do they think some young Arab or Muslim looking face, are going to be over looked? Plus the money is in running the games NOT playing the games. Just like in state lotteries.

With that said let's also forget that bingo is gambling and Islam forbids gambling. No mosque, Islamic organization or Islamic school raises funds/cash by having bingo or even raffles. So with that in mind, where would these bingo games operate and who would be their target clientele?

So there a 1,300 licensed organizations and they are probably Catholic schools/churches/orgs, DAV, VFW, AFL, and who else? So either Kentucky cannot/ could not catch these guys applying for a license or find the unlicensed NEWLY formed games.

Where is the draw going to come from? Not from the American Muslim community. So they'd need to advertise. And you're telling me that Kentucky doesn't have enough smart policing agencies to find this out? Or do they think they're going to muscle their way in to a Catholic charity or veteran’s organization and get away with it?

This is not only pork but it plays into people's ignorance and fears.

Why does this administration make me more and more depressed every day?

Call your Senators if they are on the Foreign Relations Committee today if you live in AK, CA, CT, DE, FL, IL, IN, MA, MD, MN, NE, NH, OH, RI, TN, VA, or WI, or call both Senator Lugar's office (chair of the committee) and Senator Biden's office (ranking member on the committee).

Sunday, October 23, 2005

My husband and I were watch Law and Order Criminal Intent tonight when a political advertisement came on opposing Cranston Mayor, Stephen Lafferty. On first glance it's a pretty straight forward political attack add. In a small city of 80,000, Lafferty spent $15,000 in city money on surveillance cameras to catch city employees napping, raised taxes and the ad detailed some other problem which I can't remember now (but will edit in when I see the ad again).

Now the ad doesn't say whether it is targeting a possible mayoral re-election run in 2006 or for a possible senate run. One is actually left to assume it's to counter a possible mayoral re-election run. And that's when this ad takes a surreal quality. This attack ad is paid for by the National GOP Senate Committee.

Okay hokey title I know. Here's some links you might want to investigate:

General Wes Clark on his website WesPAC, is urging people to send an email to Members of Congress now to persuade the Pentagon to enforce fair play on Armed Forces Radio by honoring their promise to broadcast Ed Schultz's radio show! Put Ed Schultz on Armed Forces Radio!(hat tip: http://www.wegoted.com)

Democracy Radio (Ed's radio affliation) has a petition:"Join thousands of other Americans in demanding that our troops around the world be provided a balanced political perspective on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS)." Radio for the Troops

Rush Limbaugh still the only political radio show broadcast on American Forces Radio

Last year, with your help, Media Matters for America drew attention to right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh's presence as the sole political commentator on American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), a taxpayer-funded service that provides radio programming to American armed forces around the world. In the wake of Limbaugh's reckless and harmful endorsement of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Media Matters called for AFRTS to remove Limbaugh from its broadcast schedule.

There is no way to truly provide "balance" to Limbaugh's hateful rhetoric, which ranges from calling people "feminazis" to saying "A Chavez is a Chavez. These people have always been a problem" to claiming that women "actually wish" to be sexually harassed. But AFRTS was set to take a step in the right direction by adding progressive radio host Ed Schultz to its broadcast schedule, beginning October 17.

However, AFRTS put those plans on hold at the last minute -- and now claims it never decided to add Schultz in the first place. Defense Department official Allison Barber personally announced the cancellation just three days after Schultz drew attention to Barber's role in a controversial scripted event President Bush held last week. Barber reportedly called Schultz's producer at home on the morning of the 17th with the news that Schultz would not be broadcast on AFR. The Defense Department's apparent decision to cancel Schultz means that Limbaugh will continue as the only political commentator on American Forces Radio and Television Service.